Smith-Mundt and Muzak

Thanks to Matt Armstrong for his invitation to attend (by phone) the Journalist’s Roundtable precursor to next week’s symposium, The Smith-Mundt Act of 1948: A Discourse to Shape America’s Discourse. It finished mere minutes ago and was an interesting insight, for a Limey outsider like me, into the workings of US public diplomacy, specifically the theoretical and practical issues arising from the Smith-Mundt Act. All readers of MountainRunner will be well aware of Matt’s mission to reconsider the Act in order to re-energise and improve American efforts to communicate not only with the world, but with its own population.

The remit of the symposium, and today’s roundtable generally, is as follows:

The 1948 Smith-Mundt Act was originally written to ensure reliable and sufficient funding for public diplomacy efforts by the Department of State; however the perceived domestic conditions when the Act was passed no longer exist. Many believe that the Act inhibits United States information activities and cripples our ability to relay the truth outside the US.   Additionally, the act has been systematically and methodically misinterpreted, misapplied and misunderstood so badly that it even inhibits US military information activities globally.  Is it time to revisit Smith-Mundt to understand its intended purposes and consider revision or rescinding?  What reforms are necessary to enable the US government to engage in the global media environment?  How important are US government information and outreach programs to our national security?

An ambitious programme, no doubt. Although some of today’s conversation was impenetrable to anyone outside the Beltway it has got me thinking more about the role of public diplomacy in general, propaganda, and what Matt calls America’s “bifurcated engagement”. I’m looking forward to seeing what comes out of next week’s meeting, but you may see (real) comment from Spencer Ackerman, Craig Hayden, Steve Corman and Matt in the meantime. I defer to them in such matters.

Anyway, a fascinating hour and a half, even if I had little to contribute myself. And, for the record, the muzak assailing the ears of those of us on the phones was nothing to do with me. I’ve spent nearly four hours over the last two days attempting to talk to my cellphone provider, and I’ve had quite enough of piped music this week…